The 1st Sustainability Report was published in Jeju 2014

The 2011-2014 BPW International Executive decided to produce the first Sustainability Report and agreed that it was time to look at the organisation through the lens of sustainability and look at how we perform and what we are doing for BPW International. Thus, this report was born.

Covering the activities of the 2011-14 Presidency, this report is based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. This is the recognised global standard. Organisations and business around the world use these to examine and guide their practices. The mission of the organisation has been used to determine the materiality of this report. While external stakeholders have not been consulted specifically on materiality, the mission is understood by BPW International’s partners, is transparent and the basis for strategic priorities.

The report is an excellent source to learn more about our international organization, its history and its activities worldwide!

Learn more about BPW Initiatives, Partnerships and Projects

At the congress in Jeju BPW International presented and distributed several new documents to promote the initiatives of BPW and its international partnerships internally and externally.

The Resource Sheets below help to explain to members the 3 core policy based initiatives: 1. The Women's Empowerment Principles s; 2. Equal Pay Day and 3. Women entrepreneurs. These two page promotional sheets give a brief explanation of the initiative, explain what BPW International is doing; shares examples of affiliates in terms of what they are doing at the national level; they provide ideas about what affiliates can do and end with Key Messages. They are designed for all members to be able to use and are two pages only so that they can be printed on demand by the clubs to be distributed to members and external organizations and companies.

Partnerships

During the triennium we built on and established new collaborations to further strengthen our advocacy efforts. Some of the exciting collaborations that we have in place are also explained in 2 page documents that are easy to read. The international affiliations means that in most cases our affiliates should be able to benefit at the local level. These explain what BPW International is doing; shares examples of affiliates in terms of what they are doing at the national level; Give ideas about what affiliates can do and end with Key Messages. They are designed for all members to be able to use and are two pages only so that they too can be printed on demand by the clubs and accessed easily by our members. Working associations with CBW, IOE, ITC and the World Bank are below:

Projects

BPW International also started a great project called Project WEPs (to be changed to: Project Women’s Empowerment) to increase our outreach, support and learning of the WEPs with our affiliates. Project Women’s Empowerment is a pilot involving some 12 countries where affiliates are invited to establish national working committees and national plans of actions over a 3 year period with the view for us to launch a working model that can be rolled out and across to all affiliates worldwide in 2016. The initial affiliates involved in this exciting project form the initial BPW ThinkTank so that we can identify Gender Specialists as a way for us to create our own pool of Gender Specialists to support each other and for advocacy purposes. More information can be accessed at this link:

New Website of BPW Europe launched at the Regional Meeting in Jeju

Before the congress starts each region has a regional meeting for all participants of the region. The room of the regional Meeting of Europe was completely full.

Besides of the report of the Regional Coordinator Sabine Schmelzer and the ECC Secretary Guiseppa Bombaci about the activities and achievements in the last 3 years, all present Federation Presidents informed about the highlights of the last year in their country. This was a good expchange of good practices. The main activity was Equal Pay Day that was organized in 25 countries in our region in 2014.

At this meeting the new BPW Europe website with the new Design was launched:

We thank our Webmaster, Ari Canonica, for his excellent work within the last weeks to finish the relaunch before Jeju.

On 5th April the Presidents of BPW Europe met in Brussels

The annual Presidents Meeting and General Assembly of BPW EC AISBL took place on the 5th April 2014. 32 Presidents and delegates from all over Europe participated in the meeting this year.

Many countries have been active with Equal Pay Day activities and reported about there events. Some of them joint Equal Pay this year for the first time like: Iceland, Ireland Poland and UK. BPW Germany brought one of their red flags and handed it over to BPW Ireland for next year.

In the afternoon breakout sessions for certain topics facilitated the exchange of good practices and ideas. This was the group for Young BPW.

A new Young BPW Representative and ECC member was elected for the next years: Maria Socratous from BPW Cyprus. We thanked Miette Dechelle for all her efforts and comittment for Young BPW in Europe in the last three years.

Alert on backlash against women’s rights: EWL delegation meets Commissioner Reding and cabinet member of EU President Van Rompuy

[Brussels, 9 April 2014] A delegation of members of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) met with two key representatives of the European Union to discuss gender equality. On Friday 4 April, they met with Ms Sarah Nelen from the cabinet of the President of the European Union, Mr Herman Van Rompuy. On Wednesday 9 April, they met with EU Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Viviane Reding. On both occasions, the EWL delegation, headed by EWL President Viviane Teitelbaum, delivered a strong message calling on reinforced commitment of the European institutions to achieve gender equality and protect and promote women’s rights.

At the meeting with Ms Sarah Nelen, EWL members highlighted the growing attacks on women’s rights, materialising through a backlash of policies denying gender equality and especially women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, and detrimental effects of the crisis and austerity measures on women’s lives and institutional mechanisms for gender equality. They also pointed out that there is a lack of consistency between EU external and internal policies: while the EU develops strong messages about gender equality outside Europe, including at UN level, it has a weak approach to gender equality within its boarders, with a lack of harmonised action on many issues, such as violence against women or women’s economic independence. Sarah Nelen stressed on the need to support more women in decision-making and equal participation at the top jobs of the European institutions. This is exactly the goal of the EWL campaign for parity democracy. Sarah Nelen also confirmed the commitment of Mr Van Rompuy to gender equality and women’s rights. The delegation handed over a document with the articles of the EU Treaty and Charter of Fundamental Rights refering to equality between women and men.

The EWL delegation that met with Ms Reding, on 9 April, was composed of EWL President Viviane Teitelbaum, Soroptimist representative Claire Pahaut, and Business and Professional Women Europe representative Amélie Leclercq, as well as three members of EWL Secretariat: Acting Coordinator Pierrette Pape, Policy Officer Irene Rosales and Communications Officer Elvira Buijink.

Ms Reding thanked the EWL, Soroptimist and BPW for their work, highlighting their role in supporting women’s networking and leadership. The Commissioner called on the EWL to continue pushing for an EU directive on women on boards and to monitor the realisation of equal pay in the Member States. She informed that she has asked the European Institute for Gender Equality to collect consistent data on violence against women. She shared her worry with regards recent attacks on women’s rights, such as sexual harassment at work, and the persistence of stereotypes. The EWL delegation thanked Ms Reding for her work as Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, and her commitment on the issues where the EU can make a difference when it comes to gender equality. Ms Reding also received the EWL frame with the articles of the EU Treaty and Charter of Fundamental Rights referring to equality between women and men.

The first Young BPW Symposium was a great success for all the participants and for us as the organizers.

Have a look at the video:

And here are some testimonials from Participants:

I got the power and inspiration to continue my BPW work. I needed that very much. Thank you!

Each time I participate to the events, it gives me so much empowerment and energy to continue BPW work. I got new tips, really good ones and met wonderful women. Thank you!

I caught the real aim of BPW. And I’ll take it in my small club in Italy. We’re acting on the future.

It was a fantastic experience and I will bring in Italy to my club the spirit and the vision of International BPW. I will try to give power to Young Women for the future, because they must combine in only one person 3 aspects: job, family and the activities of the Association. Thank you so much, perfect organisation!

And here we are…boosted once more after wonderful Symposium.

I am overwhelmed with energy and new ideas. I’ll bring them all to Ukraine and get to know you how the things are. I am sure this event is a great push for us to go forward.

Seules nous sommes invisibles, ensemble nous sommes invincibles.

Bring lobby missions on EPD to our 40 club presidents of BPW Switzerland next week.

At the presidents’ meeting in Brussels in May 2013 the new taskforce “European Lobbying” was officially approved. The main goals of our taskforces are: establishing a lobbying network and raise awareness for lobbying amongst Europe’s federations and clubs. At present we focus on two topics: equal pay for equal work and female presence on corporate boards. Since July a group of 4 women has been working on setting up the taskforce and making contacts with major organizations already working on the two topics (e.g. European Commission, European Economic and Social Committee).

It was an inspiring and motivating first Young BPW Europe Symposium in Lille under the topic: Act on your future in a professional and business world.

Members from 10 different countries came to Lille to participate in this symposium. The program started with three high level panels on the first day, including our International President Freda Miriklis and Vice-President Huguette Ablokan Dossa and Past International President Tuulikki Juusela.

In the evening at the gala dinner the Young BPW Award of BPW La Spezia was given to a Young BPW member of Germany, Mandy Hindenburg, who is the president of the club BPW Essen.

The second day was more interactive starting with workshops for elaborating a roadmap for Young BPW in Europe. Other workshops focused on personal development like the PEP Personal Development Programs and Success teams and Speed Networking. Other workshops focused on Fundraising and lobbying.

If you attended the symposium, please add your comments about the symposium.

We are looking forward to the next Young BPW Europe Symposium in 2014 in Tallinn?

1. Young women on BPW Boards

How do you learn how a board functions and how to behave in a board meeting? The best way is “learning by doing” in BPW.

All clubs and federation are encouraged to take one young BPW member on their boards.

This would be a win-win situation for the young women and for the board. Young women can learn how it is to work on a board, gain experiences in larger meetings, take responsibility for certain areas and gain self-confidence as a board member. This experience can be transferred to her professional career.

For the board on the other hand, they get additional skills as most young women bring new skill, e. g. they are familiar with internet, websites and social media. This is an area where we always can improve our promotion for BPW.

Therefore we ask all clubs and federations to look for young women whom they can take on board as this is an opportunity to train young women for future board positions.

2. 10 Tips for young women

In order to gain more Young BPW members we created 10 tips for young women:

How to accomplish your goals

Are you:

- a student?

- just starting or early in your career?

- wanting to develop into a leader in your chosen career?

- wishing to create or develop your own business?

- looking for the right balance between your professional and personal lives?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to two or more of these questions and are a woman

under the age of 35 then ...

... why not consider joining Business and Professional Women (BPW), a community of 30,000 members across 96 countries in the world?

BPW can help you!

10 Tips to achieve your goals

Through BPW you can:

Meet and engage with role models and inspiring leaders.

Expand your network of personal and professional contacts.

Get help in planning your future and how best to carry out your plan.

Try out new things and develop you skills through learning by doing.

Join in many events and seminars at local, national and international level.

Obtain training and mentoring in professional and business matters.

Get together with other women just like you to meet and have fun.

Gain and increase your self- confidence.

Become more and more successful in your chosen career or business.

Make a real difference to your life.

3. Young BPW Europe Symposium 18 - 20 October 2013 in Lille, France

We will organize the first symposium for Young BPW from all over Europe. The topic will be:

On 21 March 2013 the central event of the new campaign "Equality pays off" was organized in Brussels. 150 European company representatives, women an men, met there to exchange their ideas on strategies to better access the labour force potential of women by increasing gender equality and thereby contributing to a reduction of the gender pay gap. Selected companies showcased their activities, results and experience of tapping into the female talent pool more effectively. BPW Europe was the only women organization that participated among 10 other companies.

BPW Europe was invited to have a booth among the companies to present ourselves and our best practices on Equal Pay. Besides this our our Regional Coordinator Sabine Schmelzer was invited as an expert to talk about remuneration at one of the discussion tables. This was very much appreciated.

There will be “Equality pays off” workshops with large companies in appr. 20 countries and BPW members can participate either as a normal participant or as an expert for equal pay. For more information about the dates of the workshops please look at the website of the EU-Commission.

The best promotion was that we could present the Equal Pay Day flag from Germany in the lobby of the hotel and it was visible to everyone! And in the afternoon I had the opportunity to present Equal Pay Day to all participants in the plenary. Therefore everyone in the audience knows EPD and the red bag as the symbol for Equal Pay Day now.

We are looking forward to further collaboration with the EU commission on equal pay or gender balance on board.

From 22. bis 24.2. 2013 the first European PEP Train-the-Trainer Certification took place in Munich under the direction of Johanna Marius and Conny R Montague.

European Coordinator and PEP Trainer “from the outset” Sabine Schmelzer was also present and could support the group with many practical tips.

17 highly motivated participants from 7 countries (Austria, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan) acquainted themselves with the modules of the Personal Empowerment Program, a program which was already developed in the 1960 by American BPW member Virginia Allan Young for the personal and professional development of women and which has been continuously improved since. The PEP Program offers to women the possibility to systematically prepare for leadership roles in the professional, social or private field.

The focus in this train-the-trainer certification were the topics behavior and communication styles in addition to presentation, negotiation and leadership skills, as well as the DISC model. It explains the four typical personality styles and offers concrete support and suggestions for managers.

Despite the tough program with a lot of trainer input and interactive exercises there was enough time to network and an excellent exchange of experiences happened in this team of committed and professional women from all over the world.

With the completion this certification the participants can offer and hold their own PEP Trainings . It is particularly enjoyable that there are two concrete follow-up projects already: one in Germany and one in Estonia.